Janie's Photography Blog

Lake Atitlan

I've been going through the photos from last summer and man, I am ready to go back to Guatemala.  It was so beautiful!  Anyone want to come?

 
 
 

Bienvenidos a Miami

Wow...it is already January 21st, 2010.  Where has this month gone?  I started school back up two weeks ago, which could be a part of my neglect of the blog...but I think mainly it is due to how tired I have been at the end of the work day.  Things have been so busy at the Red Cross in Tampa (and all over the world, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross) as the organization has been working in relief efforts in Haiti.  Locally, that really means raising funds to support the relief in Haiti, answering questions about why we cannot send untrained and yet willing people (and goods) to Haiti AND being prepared to open host shelters if needed.  Right now, shelters are open in Miami and Orlando, but Tampa might be next.  I know that most people have already heard, but if you haven't yet, you can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Haiti.  You can also donate on-line here.  Where you donate is really up to you, the Red Cross is big on honoring donor intent so your funds will go where you direct them to go.  Personally, I choose the International Response Fund that will be used to help with all funding needed in Haiti, but should we raise enough through the Haiti Relief and Development Fund, this funding can be used for future International Disasters.  If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I do not typically plug causes (I think the only other time I have done this was for Global Fast) but this seems important and relevant enough.

In the midst of the craziness, my awesome boss allowed me to take last Saturday and Sunday off (while most of my co-workers worked...we're at it again this weekend).  But it was great because I got to meet one of my best friends from college, Alison Holby, in Miami.  She was there for a conference and had a free hotel room and since we really hadn't hung out in over 2 years, it was some much needed time together.  Although I grew up in Florida and besides a six year stint in NC, have lived in Tampa all of my 27 years of life, I have never visited Miami (or really many cities in this state).  While she was in her conference, I got to explore.  I visited an art show in South Beach on Friday night.  On Saturday I went for a jog through Coconut Grove and then enjoyed lunch at a restaurant right beside the marina. I checked out Calle Ocho and ordered some cuban chocolate and cookies.  On Sunday I had the chance to take a walk on South Beach.  When Alison was out (Saturday afternoon) we found an amazing park just south of Coconut Grove!  When we arrived we were greeted by a beautiful blue sky, thick salty air and dozens of kite surfers showing their skills.  We then plopped ourselves in chairs on its beautiful beach, people watched and talked for hours.   It was beautiful!  After the beach-park, we went for pedicures, enjoyed a great Italian dinner, explored a book store, watched some ridiculous TV shows and caught up.  It was not just fun, it was therapeutic.  Alison- thank you!

Enjoy the beautiful sites of Miami (I realized when we were in pajamas on Saturday night that I hadn't gotten a photo of the two of us together, boo :(.  Note to friends- when I am with you, make sure I take pictures of us too and not just the cool things we're seeing).

PS ... for some reason, I really like what was captured in the photo above.  I love simplicity and the little girl running.  It kind of makes me think of Slumdog Millionaire, but maybe that is just me.

Shots from the park on Saturday afternoon:

The view from our beach chairs.

there was a painter at the park, painting the city sky line

The wind surfers coming in as it got darker (and really gloomy).

My exploration of South Beach's night life:

The Avalon: a famous old hotel on Ocean Avenue that my dad had told me to look for.

The art show on Ocean Drive on Friday night.

The Marina at Coconut Grove on Saturday.

And then Sunday, exploring South Beach again:

When I was taking this shot, a couple of Englishmen came up and with their British accents said something like "That's a different way of looking at things."  This coconut was on the dirty sand between Ocean Drive and the actual beach. To take it, I had to lay down and hold the camera right above the sand, but point it straight, instead of down, so that I could still get a little bit of the sky and background and not all sand and coconut.  I told them that is part of what I like to do with my photography . . . look at things in a different way, and thus capture beauty in the unexpected.  They liked the images of the coconut that I showed them on the back of my camera.  The poor men had come to Florida the week before to escape the cold of England only to arrive during our 30 degree, strange week.  It was their last day and it was finally in the 70s, but . . . it was getting ready to rain!

Back on Ocean Drive.  I looked one day and captured this shot . . .

. . . then I turned around, and captured this one . . .

. . . and then it poured, so I headed home to Tampa.

PS...As soon as I turned onto A1A in Miami last Friday, I literally put on Will Smith's "Miami" song and sang along.  This experience was the inspiration for the title of this post.

 
 

Guatemalan Coffee ... mmmmm, mmmmm, good!

I finally made the final order of prints for the coffee shop.  I am so excited!  Dan, sorry to keep you waiting.  Once they're all up, I will definitely take a picture of the display so that you can see.  Kenzo and I got to visit a coffee plantation this past summer in Guatemala.  Unfortunately, I only bought one pound of the coffee, so it is long gone, but it was delicious!  I definitely recommend checking out a plantation if you ever have the opportunity.  Happy weekend!!

Her Journey

Tonight I had the unique privilege of getting to hear about someone I love's self-reflection of her place in this journey we call life.  My cousin Caitlin, agreed to let me interview her for a project that I have to do for one of my classes.  She spent over an hour on the phone, honestly answering questions about her outlook on her life, relationships, schooling, work, future, past, experience of loss, experience of hope, etc.  Needless to say, I loved every moment of it.  Caitlin, moved from Florida to Arizona about two years ago...it was a big move, she had never lived anywhere but Tampa.  The past two years have had ups and downs for her, but through it all, she has beautifully grown into her young adulthood.  She will be leaving Arizona soon to come to Tampa for the holidays before moving to Equador to work with a humanitarian organization helping a community of indigenous families assimilate into their neighboring city.  When asked what she was passionate about, Caitlin's quick response was "justice."  And to her, justice encompasses so many things, but one thing that stood out to me was "giving people the opportunity to have their voice heard.  Letting them share their story in their own words."  A cord was struck in my heart, as this is what my thesis at Davidson College was all about.  Now, Caitlin is putting her passion into action as she moves to Equador and works with families whose stories have been quieted, and who have been marginalized by a dominant community  that had discriminated against their indigenous values, beliefs and culture.  I cannot wait to hear what she learns from this experience.  Caitlin, THANK YOU for sharing your story with me tonight!   I am so excited for where you are on your journey and privileged to get to be on the road with you.  Can't wait to have you home for a little while!

Two additional comments: 1- there are 2 more days to sign up for the fall campaign for Global Fast.  Our team now has 14 people...we're looking for 11 more.  PLEASE consider giving voice to other's stories by providing clean water to a community.  Go here right now and sign up.  It is simple and life-changing. 2- this photo was taken in Quetzaltenango (Xela), Guatemala where Kenzo lived for a month this past summer.

wisdom for today

Earlier this week I was directed to an old friend's blog (thanks Jane) and I love it!!  Hannah's recent "imitation" post was insightful and encouraging...so I wanted to share the beginning of it with you.  

"Yesterday I read a "prescription for contentment" from a woman who served God among African pygmies for 52 years:

• Never allow yourself to complain about anything-- not even the weather.
• Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else. 
• Never compare your lot with another's.
• Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.
• Never dwell on tomorrow-- remember that [tomorrow] is God's, not ours."

(Excerpt from Murray's on a Mission, "imitation," 2009)

For me, this picture I shot in Antigua, Guatemala, goes well with the "prescription for contentment."  The bus seems to be content, it is not looking back into it's past, nor is it driving into the future, it's not wishing that it was in a different city or different place, nor does it "want" to be something else.  Its content, or at least it seems to be to me, just how it is and right where it is.  

Wishing you contentment today :)

Mayans and Monkeys

We spent the last few days of our trip to Guatemala in the jungle, exploring the ruins of a Mayan city called Tikal.  This was my first time seeing Mayan ruins and I have to say, they were very impressive.  Tikal was only discovered during the 1900s, since it was buried under a thick jungle in northern Guatemala.  There are probably 5-7 preserved temples, several living quarters, tombs and other buildings in the national park.  We had a lot of fun seeing the ruins and also watching the spider monkeys play.  Temple I, is the "majestic" temple that it in the majority of these photos.  If you ever visit Guatemala, Tikal is a great side-trip to take, however it requires either flying from Guatemala City to the small island of Flores (photos to come) or taking a 8-10 hour bus across the country.  We opted for the flight.  We ended up staying the night at one of the three hotels in the jungle, which allowed for us to stay inside the park well past the time most tourists had to take off.  Thus, around sunset when everyone else had to head back, we kind of got a private viewing of the Grand Plaza...which was amazingly silent and peaceful.  You can see a man meditating in one of the photos above, taking in the majesty of his surroundings.  It was also optimal viewing time for monkeys (unfortunately all of the shots I got of them had the bright sky in the background, so you mostly get to see silhouettes).  Being around such awesome works by human hands created hundreds of years ago, definitely sparked some deep and interesting conversations between Kenzo and I.  Surprisingly enough, these are not even the last of my Guatemala photos.  More to come someday, but for now, enjoy! 

I caught him jumping...we literally watched these guys for almost an hour, it was so fun.

A view of the grand plaza from one the top of another temple.

Monkeys playing at dusk.  We were at the top of some ruins that aligned with the top of their tree.  It made for a the perfect front-row view.

Kenzo, scaling one of the smaller temples.

I cannot remember which temple this is, but it was by-far the scariest one to climb up.  The original stairs are not safe to climb (I think our tour book said 2 people have died tumbling down them) so you have to use the stairs on the left that are a little rickety and straight up.  But the view is worth the trouble.

And us, getting that cool (or dorky) "hand/head stand in front of something" shot.

Colors of Guatemala

I hope you can appreciate the color in these images.  I LOVE IT!

Anyway, I am thankful to have a chance to share more of my photos from our trip to Guatemala.  I took these in a store in a small town on Lake Atitlan.  The business is run by a women's cooperative that actively seeks to employ Guatemalan women.  As you can see, their crafts are beautiful!  I wanted to buy the whole store, but I knew I wouldn't actually utilize the items once home, so I settled for one scarf.  

Happy Saturday!

In a Guatemalan Market

Slowly but surely I'm sharing the colorful scenes we got to see on our vacation in Guatemala.  In a couple of the cities we visited, Kenzo and I spent some time walking around the markets.  They had so many cool things!  The objects in the top photo are actually a little instrument that you blow into and plug up the holes like a flute.  It sounds really pretty and unlike the flutes & samponias that we bought, it's really easy to play.  The green bird that you see on two of them is a Quetzal, their country's bird.  Supposedly they used to be all over Guatemala, but are now really rare to see.  Their money is called Quetzal, after the bird, and many cities start with "quetzal", like "Quetzaltenango" where Kenzo was.  So, I guess it was a cool bird to warrant naming their money and everything else after.  The bottom photo has a mask, hammocks and more of that instrument (can't remember the name).  There were masks everywhere as you can see in the photos below!  While they were pretty cool, we only ended up buying a very little one for a Christmas ornament.

Pacaya Volcano

In the last post, I had a photo of Kenzo and me in front of flowing lava on Pacaya.  Right away Kenzo commented that the lava did not look as red as it should.  I shot in both RAW and jpeg and that photo was the RAW version.  I don't really know how to edit the RAW photos yet, so, this time almost all of these shots are jpeg (with the exception of the one immediately below this paragraph).  RAW editors, your advice is welcomed.  Anyway, enjoy Pacaya, one of the coolest parts of our trip...and probably one of the coolest things either of us have ever seen in our lives.

This photo is literally straight out of the camera (in RAW, which I didn't know really what to do with in photoshop/camera raw).  As you can see, we had a gorgeous sunset as we hiked down the mountain.

The path up the volcano.  As you walked your feet would literally slip, as you'd imagine they would if you were climbing a sand dune.  It made for a lot of work getting up.  But it was worth it!  And the way down was so fun because you could literally run and just landed really softly each long stride.

Some people chose to take the "taxi's" up.

Kenzo at the top.  I think I took too long taking the photo of him...he was really hot!

And me, I was burning up.  Those are my pant legs tied around the camera case.  Zip-off pants=awesomeness!

AND GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER . . . Kenzo's amazing shots from the top of the lava stream.  He was a lot braver than me and went to the source of the lava flow (at least the source we could see, you had to walk over rocks that you could see lava under, in order to get there).  But, it was worth it!

Reflections

It isn't easy coming back to reality after an amazingly adventurous vacation in a beautiful country.  This week I feel like I wasn't as motivated to get 800 things done at a time.  Hence, I didn't post any more photos to the blog, only "worked out" once (a walk and doubles tennis with neighbors, definitely didn't work off all that I accumulated indulging myself in delicious food in Guatemala), haven't responded to the majority of personal email/facebook messages, etc.  I just couldn't bring myself to get on the computer after spending all day at work sitting at my desk.  I asked my friend, whose job is to seek sponsorships for the local chamber, if she would seek someone who would sponsor me to travel the world.  She said she'd work on it, but didn't sound too hopeful.  Besides not wanting to sit at the computer after work, Wednesday night we had a fun dinner party with Jeff Kuykendall (who was in town taking the FL bar), Jacki Waring (in town visiting fam), my mom, and Jeff and Jocelyn (my brother and his girlfriend who just moved into our condo complex, SO FUN!  They're currently out on our boat with their cute "puppy Rielly."  Them moving into the neighborhood makes three cousins, one brother and an aunt who live here. Yay!)

Anyway, this weekend I will be spending most of my time enjoying my hubby, since he'll be starting his second year of medical school on Monday and we all know that means I won't really get much time with him.  Over the next couple of weeks I will be studying for the GRE (NOT FUN) and don't know how much time I will have to post.  But man, I have SO SO SO many photos from our adventures in Guatemala.  So, I will have to find some time to blog, it's an outlet for me that I thoroughly enjoy . . . I'm just trying to practically balance "life" right now and I guess what I am trying to say is, I don't know when these photos will get up. 

It's kind of crazy thinking that a week ago today Kenzo and I woke up in the jungle in Guatemala.  A week and three planes later, we're back to "normal" life in Florida.  Are you ever amazed at how accessible our world is to us?  While walking around in the Guatemalan jungle on Thursday afternoon, we watched a group of 12 spider monkeys playing for almost an hour until they got upset with us (maybe we outstayed our welcome?) and started beating their chest and throwing sticks at Kenzo.  It was kind of funny and kind of intimidating.  I think it is incredible how easily we are able to travel.  And "we" doesn't mean everyone.  Maybe just Americans?  Probably Europeans and others too, right?  We were talking to our waiter, Mariano, at our hotel at Lake Atitlan.  He is from the small village of Tzunana located right below the hotel and has hopes of one day traveling to the USA but up to now he has not been able to acquire a VISA.  The owners of the hotel are a Belgian-Paraguayan couple who met while both working for the UN.  The wife, although born in the US when her father was a diplomat, has not been able to secure a VISA since 9-11, mainly because she is from a Latin American country.  Talking to a few people who really want to visit our country but simply are not able to, made me even more appreciative of the opportunity that we have to see the world (as well as even more overwhelmed at the huge global issues our world has that I don't know the answers to).  Guatemala was definitely a beautiful part of this world to see!  

Last Saturday, during our long day of travel, Kenzo and I were talking about how amazing our trip was because of all of the different things we saw and did.  We started off hiking on a volcano, which alone took us through four different ecosystems.  We then spent a couple of days in the busy city of Xela.  One of the best parts of our hike and time in Xela was getting to be with our friend Duni :)!  We moved on to Lake Atitlan where we visited several different small cities that circled the lake.  We spent some time walking the streets of Antigua and visiting the ruins of Cathedrals and Monasteries that were destroyed by earthquakes in the 1700s.  We took a tour of a Coffee Plantation and got to walk through the rows of trees as we heard about the process of making that delicious beverage I enjoy almost every morning.  We hiked an active volcano, Pacaya, and literally got to watch as the extremely hot lava flowed down beside us (not to mention that we did this around sunset so had a beautiful view of another volcano with the sunset behind it the whole time).  We spent a day exploring Mayan Ruins in the Guatemalan Jungle at Tikal and here got to watch the aforementioned spider monkeys, heard the intimidating screams of Howler Monkeys and saw several toucans.  We spent our last day playing on the hot and humid island of Flores that kind of reminded me of a smaller Bohemian Island.  We jumped in the lake because we were so hot and then spent the evening sampling Pina Coladas and appetizers at several of it's lake-side bars.  We truly did have a blast and a wonderful adventure.  Surprisingly, at least to me, we were both excited and ready to return to our home.  To hot showers, fruit, safe water, milk, air condition and people we know and love.  Anyway, those are just some of todays "reflections" of our trip.  The photo at the top of this post was taken on the dock of our hotel at Lake Atitlan.  You can see the beautiful view through Kenzo's glasses of what we got to see everyday.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! 

(Obviously I did not take the photos below.  Also, just FYI, besides photos that I am in, and obviously did not take, if I post someone else's photo, I will always tell you.  And typically they'll be a smaller size then the photos I took.  Just so you know that the photos I am sharing are my photos.)

For all of you who I have told we were close to flowing lava . . . this is it.  We were REALLY close.  It was SO hot.  I'll post more from Pacaya, but wanted to show you I wasn't lying.  That was really cool!

Fun with Duni.  He took this photo and looks like a giant in it. So naturally we laughed a lot.  Dune, THANK YOU for being in Xela with Kenzo and for staying around long enough for me to see you.  We've quoted you many times since your phone call to your senora, "Mama, es Daniel.  Estoy en el parque central . . ."

People of Guatemala

We got back from Guatemala late last night.  What an adventure.  Between doing laundry, going to church, watching a movie, cleaning the kitchen, etc the day has kind of slipped away from me.  So, while I plan to write more about the trip and post images of the places we went and things we did, today I wanted to post some images of the people we saw, as these images can pretty much speak for themselves.  

Hope you enjoy.

Estamos en Guatemala

I do not have much time to write right now, nor does this keyboard resemble a normal keyboard, and thus, it is harder to write.  But wanted to update the blog with this post and say that were ¿I cannot find the apostrophe or the parenthesis? having an amazing trip.  We are currently in Antigua, a beautiful city about 45 minutes outside of Guatemala City.  We spent four glorious days being lazy at Lake Atitlan.  I am really excited to share my photos from this trip when we get back next weekend.  I was hoping to be able to share one or two right now, but was not able to download even one to the computer.  So . . . for now, you can enjoy this email that I sent to my mom, dad and grandmama earlier this week.

I will be updating next weekend. Until then Buen Provecho.

July 13, 2009

Hi Mom, Dad and Grandmama,

 

Just wanted to let you know that everything here is great.  I arrived on Friday around 7:45 local time (9:45 at home) and we immediately went to meet up with Duni and then go to our hostel where we were staying.  It shared a building with Quetzaltrekkers (we did the 2-Day Pico Zunil Hike), the group that we went hiking with all day Saturday and Sunday.  We hiked up a mountain/volcano for 8 hours on Saturday.  It was beautiful but VERY hard.  When we got to the top it was freezing.  At sunset the thermometer read 40 degrees and it only got colder throughout the night.  We woke up at 4:30 am to watch the sunrise, which was beautiful, had breakfast and started a 4 hour treck downhill.  It was SO steep that I fell like 7 times and my knees and ankles were killing me. I felt like a big baby and told Kenzo that while the view was worth it, I think that I never need to do anything like that again.  I asked him to remind me of that the next time we planned an adventure.  It was fun, but probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, especially considering I went from Sea Level to 12000 feet in 24 hours. 

 

Last night when we got back we treated Kenzo´s host mother, Aurora, to dinner.  We let her pick anywhere she wanted and she picked an italian restaurant.  It was good and she was sweet and had nothing but good things to say about Kenzo, of course.

 

Today we´ret hanging out in Xela, the city where Kenzo has lived for a month.  It feels surprisingly very safe.  It is a large city (second Guatemala City) but feels much smaller and less chaotic then GC.  We walked his host mom home last night and then walked home around 9 and it really felt safe.  He said he hasn´t had uncomfortable encounters and has only been tempted to use mace on stray dogs in the street that have come up to him. 

´

Dad, if you get a chance to talk to Nuvia, please tell her THANK YOU for sending Iliana and Roberto to help me at the airport.  They were so sweet, gave me a driving tour of the city and sat with me until my bus rolled away.  It made it so much easier than it would have been getting into a taxi. 

 

The bus ride from Guatemala City to Xela was crazy.  Four hours of them stopping and trying to get people to get in.  I thought we were going to end at a station, but when I showed them the address where I was going, they said they´d get me a taxi.  They stopped for maybe 20 seconds told me to get off, handed me my bag, waved down and taxi and then drove off.  It was already dark in Xela and I was in this small alley with an unmarked taxi and was just praying that I would be alright.  He didn´t know how to get to Kenzo´s school, so luckily I had the phone number and we were able to call and I explained to him that they were expecting me, and eventually we got there.  But that was definitely the scariest part of the trip thus far.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Lake Atitlan, which I am so excited about.  Its the part of the trip that we really "splurged on".  Here is a link to our hotel:  http://www.atitlan.com/lomasdetzununa.htm

 

Anyway, I don´t know if I´ll have any more chance to write (right now I am at Kenzo´s school), but wanted to let you know that we´re safe and already having fun.  Although I am so soar from our hike that I can barely walk.

 

Love you!

Janie

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part III (FINAL)

If you're tired of photos from my trip to Japan, then you're in luck, because this should be the last of my "Revisiting Japan" series.  But you will have to be okay with only seeing these photos for awhile, as this will probably be my last post for a couple of weeks.  As far as Japan goes, I saved the best for last. Miyajima and Hiroshima were my two favorite places we visited in Japan last summer.  Miyajima is an island with an ancient shrine located on it.  The tori gate (top photo) protects the island and marks it as sacred.  It was probably the hottest day of our trip, but we had fun walking around the island, through the shrine and to the top of the mountain where there were wild monkeys and deer, the deer were also at the bottom as well.  

Hiroshima was amazing as well, but probably for different reasons.  One was the okonamiyaki that we ate there...my favorite meal of the entire trip.  But seriously, going to the museum and kind of getting a tiny grasp on the magnitude of the tragedy that befell this city when the atomic bomb was dropped in World War II was eye-opening.  I literally walked away thinking it should be a requirement that any leader of a country with weapons of mass destruction has to visit this museum.  The "A-dome" is pictured above.  I am sure that you can google it and read a lot more about the history, but from what I remember and understood, it was basically in the centrifuge of the bomb that went off 600 meters (maybe?) above it and thus, it kind of created a vacuum, so didn't completely get obliterated like the majority of the city.  And still, all inside died immediately.  They told us that the bomb was over 2,000 degrees fahrenheit and spread 215 meters in diameter.  The bomb went off at 8:15am and several of the watches found had stopped right at that time.  Those people who did not completely disappear in the blast were practically burnt to a crisp and jumping in the river (full of radiation and "black rain") to cool off.  People said several died begging for a sip of water, so now all over the city there are water fountains and signs that say something like "that no one would ever again die in the city for lack of water."  (Obviously these signs had to be translated to me, so not exactly sure what they said).  Another story we heard was about a girl who was little at the time of the bomb, maybe 7, who seemed to be fine.  However around age 15 she was diagnosed with cancer and while in the hospital had a thought that if she created 1,000 origami cranes, she would survive.  She ended up being able to create her cranes, but within six months died of cancer.  The city now recognizes the origami crane as a symbol of all children who were victims of the bomb.  Anyway, sorry for the history lesson, but looking through these pictures reminds me of all that I was learning while in Hiroshima, so why not share, right?

There are a few other photos mixed into this post as well, which I will be sure to explain.  Enjoy and again, thanks for revisiting these places with me.

Lanterns hanging in the shrine.  You actually get to walk through it, which is just amazing.  In regards to getting to photograph the lanterns, I think my words were literally, "I'm gonna have a hay-day with those."

Something you probably do not know about me: I have always loved monkeys.  Seriously.  When I was little I really wanted us to buy a chimpanzee or spider monkey as a pet.  So, I was pretty excited to see this mom and baby when Kenzo and I got to the top of the mountain.  So cute, right?

View from the top of the mountain in Miyajima.

A great partnership.

Family photo.

The Tori Gate one last time, just because I think it is majestic and beautiful.

 

Don't be sad babe...we still have a lot of exciting things to see!

Moving on to Hiroshima, but stopping at Himeji Castle first (and there's a possibility we actually did that in reverse last summer, can't remember) . . .

While the real Emperor lives in Edo Castle in Tokyo, Himeji Castle was used for the Emperor's home in The Last Samurai.  It's called the White Heron (Kaz, please correct me if I am wrong on that) because it is white & looks like it has wings.

And now to Hiroshima . . .

The A-dome from a different view.

This is a memorial for all elementary school students who were killed in the bombing.  Notice all of the cranes.

More cranes (above & below).  The Red Cross below really stood out to me.

This is a memorial.  The stone head under the arch says something like "We will never repeat our mistake" ("We" being a corporate, humanity-encompassing "we" and not just "we" as in Japan).

This is a water fountain made of a clock that stopped at 8:15am.  The water is significant because, as I said before, the city wants water to be available everywhere so that no one will ever die again because of thirst.

This was really cool to see.  While visiting a garden in Hiroshima we encountered a Japanese photoshoot.  I don't know if these are bridal portraits or if she is a model, but either way, it was really cool to see.

Can't get enough of this cutie.  He is a triplet and the grandson of one of Kaz and Mary's friends who was a visiting professor when they were grad students at the University of Tennessee.  So cute!

My absolute favorite meal of the entire two weeks: Okanomiyaki.  Yum!

Us, about to enjoy okinomiyaki with Nehira.

 

Below are just a few more photos from the trip from various locations.  Enjoy . . .

Street in Tokyo.

Garden at our Rio-kan in Atami.

The "showers" we used (naked) before getting into the hot springs/baths in Atami.

Garden at the Buddhist Temple in Tokyo where the Koike family grave is located.

The crazy fish market in Tokyo called Tskiji.

 

Peace.  In almost all of our photos with Japanese people we made the peace sign.  I don't know if they think it is something that we do or if they just always do it, but either way it makes for a comical viewing of 0ur photos.  

 

And a couple of fun family videos.  Haha.  Kaz, thanks for making us laugh.

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part II

Wow.  I cannot believe how many photos I want to share from our trip in Japan last summer.  I have been sitting here, watching Michael Jackson on Extra and then Opera on DVR and slowly going through my "Best of Japan" folder trying to figure out which ones to post . . . and I am having a really difficult time narrowing them down.  So, here is a shorter glimpse of some of the amazing sights we enjoyed last year in Japan.  There will be at least one more post from Japan before Friday.  Enjoy.

Revisiting Japan - Summer 2008, Part I

Last summer Kenzo and I traveled to Japan with his parents, Kaz and Mary, and his sister, Adria.  We had an amazing family vacation spending a week traveling throughout the country and visiting Hakone, Atami, Hiroshima and Miyajima.  We spent a second week based out of Tokyo visiting Kaz's family and friends from high school and college.  We made so amazing memories and saw some of the coolest places I have ever seen in my life.  Hope that you enjoy this first set of images from the trip.  I will definitely be posting more images and giving more details sometime soon . . . you can also see shots from this trip in three different albums on my facebook account.

I've had a fun week of really keeping the blog up-to-date and fresh.  Thanks for revisiting these fun memories with me.  I will be taking a break over the weekend as I host two of my best friends, Elizabeth and Ali, for the 4th.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow us to enjoy the beach, bay, and lake.  I hope that you have a happy 4th of July too.

Revisiting Cochabamba, Bolivia - Summer 2007

I hope that I do not bore my friends at SouthFloridaDaily.com who have definitely seen some of these photos before, but the majority of my friends haven't had a chance to see them, so I thought they would be a great part of my "Revisiting" series.  (Plus, and Will, Leah, Hank, and others please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, I think you've only gotten to see these four: "Multiple Expressions," "La Bella," "Hideout" and "Bolivian Beauty".  Hope you enjoy the rest!)

That being said, these photos are from a trip that we took in July of 2007 with Hyde Park Presbyterian Church.  We stayed at the Bolivia Life Center, an orphanage for abandoned boys, located just outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia.  There were several really amazing aspects of the trip, for the group as a whole and each individual on the trip.  For example as a group, I don't think any of us will ever forget "El Tiempo de Cosquillas" (Tickle Time) when we would go to the boys' room to get them all riled up from being chased and tickled, before trying to settle them down to read and say their prayers.  I don't think we'll forget the skits we put on in the nearby neighborhoods, or Walker being the conceited king.  On an individual level everyone has their own stories to tell too.  I know that even though he was there under unfortunate circumstances, Kenzo (who hadn't yet applied to medical school at the time) was thankful for the opportunity to visit one of the boys who had to be taken to the hospital after being injured while we were doing construction at the orphanage.  He appreciated the opportunity to catch a glimpse of healthcare in a third-world metropolis.  Some of the moms tell stories of how they were brought to tears just hugging the boys and tucking them in at night because it made them think about how these boys don't have a mother to shower them with the love and attention they give to their own children.

For me personally, some of my favorite experiences were: 1- the psychologist asking me to help with "art therapy" - and getting to ask the boys why they drew the things they drew. 2- being there with my mom and husband and getting to process things we were seeing together. 3- being there with some of my best friends from high school and college and getting to better know some of the other people on the trip. 4- going out into the villages and getting to love on the children who came out to play games, have their face painted, etc with us. 5- having my heart broken by some of the incredibly incomprehensible stories that surrounded each of the boy's lives (for example one of the boys was missing toes because his father used to cut them off when he was "misbehaving".  In his case he was actually taken from his family.)

Anyway, while there I took lots and lots of photos.  I had a hard time of narrowing it down but chose these because of their photo-journalistic style (a lot of the others were us posing with kids).  Enjoy . . .

And P.S.- Once again these photos were all taken with my CanonPowershot SD 450, if I return, I will definitely take the new one. 

This little girl lived in one of the villages that we visited and she LOVED me and my camera.  

Her village happened to be one of the really high altitude one and you can see that the crisp winter air and dry weather had really chapped her precious skin.

Michael led a trip to Bolivia in the summer of 2006 and ended up staying awhile after to live at the Bolivia Life Center.  

Needless to say as soon as the boys saw him, they ran up to greet him, so excited he was back.

Hideout from the heat (and probably the other boys).

The highest and driest village/neighborhood we visited.  And below, faces from this specific village.

Back at the orphanage.

Day at the park with the boys.  Let me tell you they loved being chased, which made for an exhausting day for me!

View from the orphanage.

Michael doing his thing!

cute little ladies...and a gentleman.

at some point you have to have a shot like this, right?

me and my mom

me and my hubby

kelly, meghan, michael and me trying to push kenzo off the cliff

Revisiting Los Cabos, Mexico - Summer 2006

"A poor craftsman blames his tools."  That's a line my dad always used to tell me when I was little and blamed my sports equipment for my loss.  While that line taught me great life lessons and also empowered me to move forward and claim my victories despite the inadequacy of my equipment, it's hard for me to look at these photos and not wish that I had owned my DSLR camera at the time.  I'm not saying that my CanonPowershot SD 450 didn't do a good job.  For a point-and-shoot, it has been an amazing camera.  I'm just saying that it would have been really fun for me to have had my "nicer" camera with us on this and other vacations.  As I mentioned on a previous post, I am without my DSLR camera for the month and thus have not been taking a lot of new photos.   The lapse in new photos gives me the opportunity to share older images with you.  Over the next few days I will be posting a "Revisiting" series that will give you a glimpse into fun moments and awesome images from the past.  I don't know exactly how long the series will last or what I will include besides my trips over the past three summers, but we'll see what happens. 

All that being said, these photos are from our Honeymoon in Los Cabos, Mexico in August of 2006.  Kenzo planned the entire trip and I did not find out where we were going until we got to our gate in the Atlanta Airport.  I was SO excited when I read the destination on the departure gate because my aunt had visited there before and told me how beautiful it was AND because I was going to get to utilize my Spanish (in neither expectation was I disappointed).  Thanks to my in-laws and them giving us their time share, we stayed at the Hilton, which is the most luxurious hotel I have ever been in before and will probably ever be in again.  While relaxing at the hotel, we enjoyed its swim-up sushi bar (my husband's Japanese, you got to know he loved this!), pool-side beds, fancy daiquiris, free crab cake and cocktail hour, and infinity pools.  One thing I loved about the trip is how much we actually left the hotel to explore and experience some adventure.  We visited both San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, went on a snorkeling trip and sunset cruise, ate the local fare, often and at the most "hole in the wall" places we could find, observed a little bit of the night life and shopped!  It was INCREDIBLE and until this past spring break trip, it was the last time we'd taken a trip with just the two of us...which only makes me more excited for our two weeks in Guatemala coming up this month!

To comment on the top three photos, the first is over the shoulder of a girl who was on our snorkeling trip.  I am assuming that she did not realize I was taking this shot.  The best part of that trip, besides the beautiful fish of course, was the bottomless guacamole for lunch and the tequila shots for honeymooners.  The second shot is overlooking the beach from our hotel deck.  Wow!  The third is pretty self-explanatory, just a shot of the famous Arch of Los Cabos.

Anyway, hope you enjoy my "revisiting" of this beautiful place!  

 

The restaurant at Las Ventanas Hotel where we ate for our last night of the trip.  Our toes were literally in the sand and we got there right when the sun was setting.  So romantic!

These are the pool-side beds at the hotel that I was talking about...a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

View from our balcony.

This man is creating a masterpiece.  He's placing tiny beads, one-by-one, on their sides to cover this wooden statue that is coated in wax.  We bought a couple of beaded creations for souvenirs.

for Kenzo

There's something about Davidson

There really is something about this place, especially in the spring.   Spring on Davidson College Campus is incredible, there's this magical feeling that I don't know how to describe.  The weather seems to draw students, faculty and community members out from indoors and while I know the students have a whole lot on their minds, they seem to be more carefree and relaxed...or at least more willing to put off studying for a couple of hours and layout on Chambers lawn, or take a jog on the cross country trails, or head over to the lake campus.  Kenzo and I were thrilled to be able to visit Davidson at the end of our trip.  We both really loved our experience at Davidson and have many sweet memories of the time we spent there in our formative college years.  I thought that I would use these photos to tell you "What I love about Davidson College" (I must warn you that this list is definitely not exhaustive).  In no specific order, here we go . . .

I love seeing students playing ultimate frisbee or football out on Chambers lawn.

I love Thursday Night Worship (above, photo taken by Kenzo) held at Davidson College Presbyterian Church (below).

I love heading out to our Lake Campus and laying out on the peninsula...and while you cannot see it here, I love stopping for snow ice at the hut on 115 on the drive home.

I love Summit Coffee, especially the Chai Latte or Frappe.  I also love Main Street in general and the fact that you always run into people you know when you're hanging out there (even after being gone for two years, we ran into 3 or 4 people we knew and even some we did not know, including Stephen Curry and the rest of the Davidson Basketball team.)

Above is Chambers, our academics building where we took the majority of our classes.  I know this is crazy, but I love Davidson Academics.  The professors are inspiring and personal (my advisor even came to my wedding in Tampa the weekend before Fall Classes started).  Our classes are challenging and formative.  And while I spent my entire senior year toiling over my senior honors thesis, it was probably one of my favorite things I did in all of my time at Davidson.  It required me to dig deep and try to touch and understand the lives and experiences of the people I wrote about and I will never forget some of the things that I learned.  I titled it, Life Writing, Representacion y la Experiencia del Inmigrante...(I was a Spanish major).

I love the spring flowers that bloom everywhere and the fact that this particular place, right behind the Chemistry building, near Jackson Court, will forever be (to me) "Keeley's  perfect make-out spot."

I love my husband, Kenzo, who I met at Davidson College and I love his love for our alma mater.

I love the quirky, weird students.  I took this photo for all of my Davidson friends who haven't been to campus in awhile.  This "Free Speech Board" is now located in the Union and it is always entertaining to read.  The weekend we were there happened to be Decision Davidson, so I guess they were saying "What one piece of advice would you offer to incoming students?" for the Decision Davidson kids to read.  It's funny that I remember this, but when I was a senior in high school and visiting during Decision Davidson, I stayed in Belk Dorm and met Mike, Tim and Tristan  (who later became some of my favorite Davidson friends).  I still remember their advice...it was something like "Bring something, anything, that will enable you to get off campus.  A car, bike, skate board, whatever.  You have to be able to escape."  Haha, I'm glad they didn't scare me from coming ;) but they were right.  Sometimes you just have to get off campus.

I loved my senior year, living in F (above) with my best friends!  Something like 90% of Davidson students live on campus all four years and the first three are usually spent in dorms.  Moving into the senior apartments, where you actually have a kitchen and living room to share with your roommates, makes the year a ton of fun.  You could often find some impromptu wiffle ball games going on in our front yard or a volleyball or basketball game going on in the back.

I love the honor code that we all were bound to.  In summary, it states that we will not lie, cheat or steal during our time at Davidson.  This allowed for us to have certain advantages like "self-scheduled exams" and the community bike system from the photo above.  You can literally take it, ride it to anywhere on campus and just leave it.  The Honor Code makes Davidson and incredibly unique place.  My freshman year I left my laptop in a carrel at the library for two weeks straight and it was never touched, amazing, huh?

The photo above is for my husband who came to Davidson to play soccer.  I loved Davidson athletics, even before our basketball team was big time.  There was nothing better than watching a baseball game (go Michael) or tennis match (yeah Fillnows) in the beautiful spring weather or supporting Trisha's swimming team, Jess' in field hockey, or catching a football game. 

I love the cross country trails.  While I was never a great runner, I always loved getting away for an hour and walking or jogging the trails, both alone or with a friend.  There is this part of the trails (I really hope that it is still there) that is covered in kudzu and it always made me think of the secret garden.  I didn't really have time to jog them during our trip, but snuck away long enough to walk the short route from the back of F to the back of Belk.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY...

I love the people that I met during my four years as a Davidson Student and two more years working in the area.  It was so much fun to get to see so many of you!

David, Trey and Kenzo

Alice and me; at the lake campus (above) and in keeley's make out spot (below)

Meghan, Misty, me and Kelly at Toast in Huntersville

(This is a fun little "small world" story.  Misty actually went to Grove City College and graduated in 05 like me.  We became friends when she moved down to Charlotte (through lots of different connections).  Anyway, since I moved to Tampa, she met Meghan through teaching and now hangs out with the twins.  So fun!)

Ryan, my favorite boss ever!  We had fun seeing you! 

(Ryan is the area director for Lake Norman Young Life and a VERY proud graduate of University of Tennessee.  Probably over a month before football season he would play "It's Football Time in Tennessee" like 10 times a day in the office and get ridiculously excited.  He also will get stuck on a song that he likes and literally play it on repeat over and over until you finally ask him if you can change songs..."I Ain't Settling" from Sugarland is one that stands out in my mind)

PS...former Lake Norman Young Life leaders, if you're ever visiting Davidson, you should definitely go check out the new YL office on Main Street!!  It's amazing.  You enter it from the back of the building right in between the Soda Shop and the store that so many of you cleared boxes out of.

The Smartts, Felts and Koikes.  "Normal pose"

"excited that jess is having a baby in 2.5 weeks!  touch the tummy."

"run and jump in the photo before the timer goes off!"

We got to hang out and cook dinner with the Smartt's and Felts.  They probably would like for me to make it clear that they did not go to Davidson, but they are some of our best friends in NC and we always have so much fun visiting with them!!  We love you guys.  Cannot wait to meet Samual Smartt and host the Felts again for Gasparilla!

Kenzo and me at the Lake Campus

Kenzo, Emily and I at her wedding in Spartanburg on Saturday.  The wedding was the perfect way to end our amazing trip.  I posted several fun group shots on my facebook account, but wanted to post this one of us here. 

Finally . . .

Jaimie, Duni and Bethany, I cannot believe that we forgot to grab a photo of us.  Thanks for driving from school to come visit us and grab some Cookout at 11:30pm!  I miss you all and love you to the moon.  I cannot wait for the girls' visit this summer and Duni, I really want you to go to Guatemala with Kenzo this summer...make it happen!  Ashley, Sarah, Emily and Becca, I wish I would have gotten a photo with you as well.  While it was too brief, it was great to see all of you!

Savannah

We've been back from our trip for almost a week now and I still haven't posted my Savannah or Davidson photos.  Well, here you have Savannah.  Kenzo and I were really looking forward to this part of the trip because everyone we spoke to who had ever visited Savannah loved it.  The weekend before we left we rented Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (I actually am half way through the book as well), just so we could get a taste of the Savannah life.  The movie portrayed the Savannians as hospitable southerners, extremely conscientious of social class and status, and always up for a good drink, no matter what time of day.  We definitely found the former and latter description to be true, but were not necessarily enough on the "inside" of society to make a judgement on the validity of the middle accusation.  The city is beautiful to walk around in!  Every few blocks you encounter one of the famous Savannah squares.  They're basically little parks right in the middle of the roads, homes, and restaurants.  Each has its own significance to history or culture and most have some sort of statue or fountain in the middle of them.  In just about every square you could find at least one person sitting, enjoying the weather, talking to a friend or reading.  Savannah School of Art and Design (SCAD) is also located right in the heart of the city, so you often see students with their sketch pads, drawing one of the beautiful buildings that surround the squares.  SCAD Students definitely gave the city a hippie-esc flair, as you'll see in one of the photos below.  We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Spanish Moss Inn.  It was located right on Bay Street which is by the river walk (another cool part of the city).  Our B&B family recommended that we eat at The Olde Pink House...and it was delicious!  Chase and Erin, your recommendation of the black-eyed pea sandwich at B. Matthews was also a good one.  We took a road trip out to the Bonaventure Cemetery and Fort Pulaski as well and really enjoyed both.  Overall, amazing time . . . hope you enjoy . . .

this little guy caught me taking shots of the houses on his road.

this is my "w."  i am collecting a series of photos to hang the words "walk in love" in our kitchen.  i still need both "l's" and maybe some others.

ship, when i saw this "s" and the colors associated with it, i thought of you and snapped the picture.  

loved this unkept wall in a small alley...not as presentable as the beautiful houses you see along the main roads and squares, but i liked it.

these girls were amazingly flexible and literally kept their hula-hoops going forever in some sort of dance.  they're the hippie girls i was referring to earlier.  because the park was so green and they didn't really stand out, i took the liberty to play in photoshop and make it so that they're the only color in the photo...which i think draws your eye to them, instead of making you figure out what the photo was focused on.  what do you think of the results?

dave felts, if you're reading this, we thought of you as we toured the paula dean store and restaurant.  we didn't eat here because of the lines, but it smelled good!

above is the Olde Pink House were we ate a delicious dinner!  it was once the governor's mansion and later a bank.  it has been a restaurant for 50 years.  tampa people, think Bern's Steakhouse, mmmmm so good! 

the Spanish Moss Inn, our lovely bed and breakfast.  we stayed in the dormer room in the attic.

above is the Mercer House, where the murder from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil took place.

Shots of Bonaventure Cemetery . . .

the scripture on this tomb reminded me of my time working at pico escondido in the dominican republic, as it was the theme for the long-term construction on the camp for dominican youth.  i think it is interesting that the tomb didn't mention where stoddard emigrated from.

Shots from Fort Pulaski . . .

St. Augustine & Diego

the pink blanket sunset spread out all over the city of st. augustine...so gorgeous!

sunrise at diego.  perfect place to sit, think, pray and soak up the morning sun.

So I keep calling our vacation, "Spring Break," which is funny because I've been out of school for four years now and technically haven't had the luxury of a spring break since then.  BUT as the wife of a medical school student, not only was I excited for him to have a break from his studies, but I personally was in much need of him to be completely free of the demands of school and able to just relax, hang out and have fun.  Thus, this past week was an amazing SPRING BREAK for both of us!  Besides knowing where we were going to be sleeping every night, we really didn't plan too much of the trip, which made it spontaneous and laid back.  The photos in this post are from the first night and morning of our trip.  After I got off work on Tuesday, we headed over to lovely St. Augustine.  We spent a couple of hours walking around the city, enjoying the beautiful weather and the amazingly pink sunset (it literally hung pink all over the city) before realizing that we were both starving.  We followed the delicious scent of pizza and downed a huge pie, perfectly complimented by two draft beers.  As if that wasn't enough, after getting in our car to drive away, we saw people walking around with ice cream and decided that we just had to have it, so we re-parked and split a waffle cone full of cookies and cream.  It was well worth it, but was also the start to a week of eating way too much!   Our friend Marshall was sweet enough to leave us a key to Diego (Marshall has a tendency to name his possessions, house, car, etc, and while "Diego" is on "Diego Island" he doesn't really tell you that when he talks about "Diego").  Anyway, Diego is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!  It's a little, "red neck" house, right on the intercostal between St. Augustine and Jacksonville and the perfect place to wake up, head outside and sit in the early morning sun (Kenzo on a hammock, me on the dock).  It was a great start to our trip; thanks Marshall! ;)

I'll be posting photos from the rest of the trip later this week but for now...enjoy St. Augustine (and the top two from "Diego") . . .

this one is for my tampa girls.  they're the stairs to a hostel and as soon as i saw them, they made me think of you all and your love for the pirate-life we have here in tampa!

there were so many cool windows/doors/walls/textures in both st. augustine and savannah.  i love the peeling paint in the photo above.

A building on the campus of Flagler College...such a pretty school!

automatic timer, take 5: kenzo told me no matter how it turned out, this was the last one.  glad it came out alright.

marshall and i in front of the delicious place we stopped for breakfast in jacksonville.

Spring Break . . . preview

Cool Window . . . St. Augustine, FL

Bonaventure Cemetery . . . Savannah, GA

Davidson College Library . . . Davidson, NC

We just got back from our amazing week visiting beautiful places and seeing wonderful friends.  I am exhausted and can't spend too much time posting right now, but wanted to give a preview with a shot from each of our three main stops.  We also stopped in Spartanburg, SC but I only got fun group shots at the wedding there.  More to come...I promise, but for now, good night :)

Weekend in Washington

Last Friday, eight Tampa girls descended upon Washington, DC for the weekend to enjoy the nightlife and beautiful sites of the city.  We came to visit our amazing and very missed friend, Erin, who moved from Tampa to DC last summer.  With the exception of Claire, who is a beautiful, fun-loving, full-of-life-and-amazing-stories addition to our group of friends, the rest of us have all been friends since high school.  We had a great weekend!  We kicked Friday night off in Dupont Circle for some great mexican food and then headed in to Georgetown for the rest of the evening.  We enjoyed a piano bar where they played several fun, sing-along songs, and where I was told that I looked like "Sarah Palin, only hotter."  (Haha).  Afterwards we headed to Saloun for some live music and then around 3am we went to Ben's Chili Bowl, a famous restaurant where they serve chili dogs and chili cheese fries (which was the last thing I wanted at the time, but the girls were definitely excited to pound them down) and where Obama apparently eats for free.  The next day we headed down to the museums and the mall.  It was the Kite Festival, so we all got to witness a Kite Run (which ps, if you have not read the Kite Runner, you should definitely check it out, be prepared to cry!)  Saturday was actually very overcast, but it was fun to capture the gloomy, wintery feel of the monuments through my camera lens.  I was most excited about the fact that the cherry blossoms were out!  My friends were probably annoyed with me for days leading up to the trip because I kept talking about how I really hoped they'd be out...but let me tell you, they are not over-rated.  They're absolutely beautiful and I could have stayed walking through them for hours (and would have loved to return and see them on a non-overcast day).  Erin, you better go back down there sometime in the next couple of weeks to soak up their beauty!  That afternoon Sarah Hart's sweet grandfather treated us to high tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  Our friend, Sam, who unfortunately was not with us, would have definitely said that we were "so fancy."  It was a much appreciated break from walking around the mall and we stuffed our faces with delicious finger sandwiches and desserts.  Saturday evening we went to an yummy asian-fusion restaurant before heading down to Adams Morgan, where we were definitely on the older-side compared to everyone we saw out that evening.  We ended up eating way-too-ridiculously-large pizza slices at Pizza Mart where, in the words of Ashley, "we almost got in a street fight" with some annoying, very drunk and rude guys.  We finally got back to the hotel and in our beds by around 4:30am and have since realized that we're way-too-old for nights like that!  Sunday was gorgeous weather!  It was that kind of beautiful, 60-ish degree, spring weather that automatically puts you in a great mood (I'm not 100% sure Shipherd and Stacey would agree).  We headed over to the Capital Hill area and Eastern Flea Market, which was so fun and I think we all made out with some great purchases.  Plus the crab-cake sandwich was delicious!!  We truly had a wonderful weekend full of laughs, fun and some much needed catch up time with each other!  We're already planning for high tea 2010, and just trying to decide where that will be...possibly New York to visit Christena?!

In addition to the treat of spending the weekend with my girls, I was fortunate enough to get to see two of my favorite friends from Davidson: Mike Dausch and Trisha Blackwell.  Mike and I got to hang out on Friday as he showed me around Baltimore, Columbia and Potomac (which is pronounced pa-toe-mik, accent on the last syllable, not poe-tow-mac, accent on the second syllable, like I had been saying it in my head).  We had a great time in deep conversation about life and where we've been and were we are.  I was so excited that he joined us in Georgetown on Friday night.  He might have gotten more than he bargained for, but I think he had fun and got to officially start his 27th birthday off with a tequila shot with Christena (who also turned 27 this week.)  Trisha drove up from Fredericksburg, VA on Saturday afternoon to meet up for coffee.  Our hour and a half long date went by WAY TOO FAST, but it was so refreshing to see her and get to catch up.  We realized that although we had kept up pretty well, we actually hadn't seen each other in four years!  You would be amazed by this beautiful friend of mine, she has such an incredible story and is actually writing a very near-and-dear to her heart book about some of the things she's dealt with.  Trisha- you're an inspiration and I cannot wait to read it!  

Enjoy . . .

the shot that I was imagining!!  there is something majestic about the monuments, especially the Jefferson

  

my friend Christena is always willing to oblige my photographic desires by being ready for a shot. . . she's actually taking up photography herself, so it was fun to fall back with her and take some shots together.   

i loved the colors of the market

this guy was playing outside of the Eastern Flea Market...I wish I had had cash to tip him

for kenzo

leaving the metro on the beautiful sunday morning . . . it looks like i caught a kiss, but i'm not sure

have you ever had an experience like the one described above?

and some group shots of the ladies . . .

 (funny side note, I was very unimpressed with other people's photography.  we had several people attempt to take photos of us in front of the monuments, and they never got the monuments.  that is the only reason I actually put the shot above on here, just so you could share in my frustration...where's the lincoln??  we could have easily take a shot like this in tampa...speechless)

mike, christena and me.  was this after your dtr conversation?

trisha and i found these random fish and for some reason decided to take a picture with them.  trisha, please come to FL in june!  

Windy Gap

I gave a preview of our week at Windy Gap in a previous post, but I wanted to finish telling the story through these images.  

It was a week of . . . 

. . . music . . .

. . . laughter . . .

. . . color . . .

. . . adventure . . .

. . . friendship . . .

. . . surprises . . .

. . . fears conquered . . .

. . . life experienced . . . 

. . . love realized . . .

. . . and grace revealed .

Thanks girls, for letting me be a part of your first Young Life Camp experience, and even more, a part of your lives!

The Best Week of Your Life . . . preview

 

 

 

It's hard to stay away from something that you love.  After 6 years of being a Young Life leader in North Carolina, Kenzo and I moved to Tampa in 2007.  I didn't know at the time that a little over a year later, I'd be back at a Young Life Camp with an amazing group of freshmen girls.  We went to Windy Gap with Tampa Young Life over their Christmas Break and had an amazing week!  Last night the girls came over to eat dinner, catch up and watch a slideshow of our week...it made me want to go back right now!  Here are just some teasers of an adventure-filled week...more to come soon.